- Spanish GP
Maldonado racks up another penalty point
Pastor Maldonado racked up his fourth penalty point on his superlicence at the Spanish Grand Prix after his collision with Caterham's Marcus Ericsson.
Maldonado clashed with Ericsson at Turn 11 early in the race and was given a five-second stop-go penalty at his first pit stop. The stewards also gave him another penalty point, bringing his total to four after the three he picked up in Bahrain for crashing into Esteban Gutierrez. Twelve points within a 12 month period adds up to a single race ban, meaning Maldonado has used a third of his points after just a quarter of this year's season.
"Today's result is a bit disappointing but my race had been already compromised by starting at the back the grid," Maldonado said, referring to his crash in qualifying. "At least we saw the chequered flag and collected more data for the team to keep on developing the car.
"We made a step forward in terms of pace with the car this weekend, it was much more competitive than 15th but the lack of top speed meant we weren't able to attack even if we had a quicker car than others around us. We need to keep working on that and to be faster on the straights."
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